How would you teach the subject Aston Villa

[Slaphead]

As some of you know I have moved to East Sussex where it's full of Arsenal, Chelsea and Liverpool fans, my girlfriend is a teacher and over the summer is teaching Spanish and German students English. Part of her teaching syllabus is bits on English culture and one of the subjects football. I was looking through her teaching guide in the football section and it gave snippits of information about how football was invented, the history of football, about the famous English teams like Arsenal, Man U, Chelsea, Liverpool and Spurs. This pissed me off.

My girlfriend is now going to do a 40 min lesson about a specific team due to it's history and impact on football as she is aware of our history, and what we have done.

So how would you teach about Aston Villa? Some things even I don't know too much about like the Nazi salute thing.

[Legion]

How old are her students?

[KRS]

Grab the best "History of Aston Villa FC" DVD, play it to them, then declare "...and that is why Aston Villa is the best football club in the world. Any question?"

[UsualSuspect]

I would start the lesson full of gusto and enthusiasm whilst tearfully remembering the good old days, mid lesson I would be beginning to lose interest and by the end of the lesson I would be reading Titbits.

[Legion]

I'd focus on William McGregor with regards to what he did for us and football in general.

[richardhubbard]

We were great in 1890's , won the FA Cup a lot. Good in early 1900's , last won the FA Cup in 1957. Were shit in 60's. Had a good 70's and peaked in 80's , Doug took over and had a bad period. 90's were decent and then declined in 2000-2005, came good again to a point upto 2009.

Future time will tell but compared to post Sky era abroad we are a none event.

[Concrete John]

We could cover a great many subjects:-
Maths - Doug
History - 1982
Religion - Paul McGrath
Home Economics - Richard Dunne
Geography - MON
English Language - Gabby

[Legion]

We could cover a great many subjects:-
Maths - Doug
History - 1982
Religion - Paul McGrath
Home Economics - Richard Dunne
Geography - MON
English Language - Gabby

Excellent.

[dave.woodhall]

You could do a really good lesson on how football grew during the late nineteenth century, linking it with imperialism and the influence of religion on the masses.

[Pat McMahon]

As the students are German and Spanish I would supplement the above references with copious footage of us beating Bayern in 1982 and Barcelona in 1983. That should intrigue the students on several levels - a club of our rich heritage and tradition which is not on their screens every week beat the famous Barca and half the German world cup final team when football was not just about money.

Throw in endless comments about the failure of Chelsea and Arsenal to win the big one and just how hilarious this is. Look under dictionary entry for wonderful British humour. You should thank the Spaniards personally at this point as Barcelona have trumped Arsenal, Chelsea and Man Utd in the European Cup final or semis in the past 5 years.

Add further abuse re them all being relatively late developers who were not even founder members of the Football League and then undermine them individually: Arsenal changed name and location and their kit is modelled on ours; Liverpool stole their ground from Everton; Man U changed their name and their kit, and Chelsea were struggling to be the 3rd or 4th biggest club in London until the Russians took over. Spurs are basically a cup team that have only ever won the league twice (I think) and only owe their existence to the mighty Aston Villa playing friendlies with them to raise cash when Spurs were mere amateurs. And their emblem is a bird that stands knee deep in shit - this is not a coincidence.

Finish with Prince William, Mervyn King, the shiny faced toff in Number 10, Nigel Kennedy, Amy Winehouse and Tom Hanks. I reckon that should see you through 40 minutes.

[richard moore]

Presumably the standard text book will be the Simon Inglis one on Villa Park? You can point my name out in the back - and my dad's - at the same time just to add a bit of gravitas to the classes....

[Steve R]

We could cover a great many subjects:-
Maths - Doug
History - 1982
Religion - Paul McGrath
Home Economics - Richard Dunne
Geography - MON
English Language - Gabby

Woodwork - Stylian Petrov

..

If there are Germans there, I would avoid references to Nazi salutes, although I would wear a black shirt and occasionally goose step just to take the piss.

[Salsa Party Animal]

Art - Gordon Cowans
Music -
Italian - Gerry Hitchens
Spanish - Carlos Cuellar
French - David Ginola
Hairdressing - David Ginola / Tony Daley
Photography - Terry Weir

[Concrete John]

Photography - Terry Weir

With Ashley Young special guest speaker on the web photography setion of the course.

[Louzie0]

Some more ideas to add to the excellent suggestions above!

Start in the Drama room and set up a lamp post with spooky lighting to simulate a victorian fog and explore the magical moment of the Jack Hughes, Frederick Matthews, Walter Price and William Scattergood meeting and their decision to become Aston Villa.

Then play highlights of the first game as players 'argue' about the rugby rules and want to play football instead. (I know this might not be exactly how it happened but we know there was a compromise to play half the match under different rules!)  Drama is conflict.

 Fast forward to the scene when McGregor is making his case for a football league and role play this as a powerful scene with others saying, it'll never work, and McG saying, I have a dream, someday we will have season tickets...this could be the big one, etc.

Work out what the agenda might have been, if you were going to set up a football league and how many matches there would have to be, what agreements needed to be made between the clubs concerned, where the money was going to be spent and indeed how much they had at the time, given the socio-economic context.

 Look at the geography and work out how long it would have taken them to get to away fixtures and what sort of transport they had available at the time.  When did supporters start travelling in numbers and when did the club recognise supporters' organisations? 

Design a kit, and visit a football museum to see the real thing or find photos on the various websites.

Re-visit Peter Terson's 'Zigger Zagger' for a taste of football in the sixties and identify the possible beginnings of the cult of 'celebrity' footballer and its impact upon the aspirations of working class lads like those in the play. (Change the name of the team in the play!)

Reference Harold Pinter's The Dumb Waiter and Philip Larkin's poem MCMXIV as examples of a long-standing national cultural significance of the club. 

And my favourite bit - watch the Villa goals in all the cup finals and then recreate them out on the pitch, with reference to the brilliance and expertise of the teams and individuals concerned!  Lots of slo-mo replays and songs/chants for atmosphere.

Ooops.  Think I may have forgotten the 40 minute thing!